Introduction

"The GNOME Desktop and many applications use GConf to store user preferences and system configuration data. GConf provides a central storage location for preferences, simplifying configuration management for users and system administrators. More information about GConf can be found in the GNOME System Administrator's Guide." (Configuration Editor Manual, Introduction, Version 2.8)

Installation

Note that gconf-editor is not the recommended way to set desktop preferences in modern Ubuntu releases.

Usage

Launching the Program

The Configuration Editor is hidden by default in the System Tools submenu. Access it by pressing Alt+F2 and typing gconf-editor. Under apps are the settings for all applications that use Gconf to store user preferences.

Exploring the Editor

The configuration editor will load up with a left hand window that displays settings in a tree format. The main headings are apps, desktop, schemas, and system.

Windows users will note this is similar to the Windows registry editor, but should note that the settings are not stored in a registry like database.

apps

Settings for various applications are in this section. Some of the sub-sections include:

compiz

evolution

gksu

nautilus

metacity

panel

Many others

desktop

Settings for the the gnome desktop are included in this section. The two sections are gnome and pgp.

schemas

The schema section is the schema of the other gconf-editor tree sections

system

The system section contains settings for the system. Some of the sub-sections include: